7, 2005 Volume 12 Issue 1 in THIS ISSUE
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Volume 12 Issue 1 News Desk - Tel: 076-236555 January 1 - 7, 2005 Daily news at www.phuketgazette.net 20 Baht The Gazette is published in association with Relief effort begins IN THIS ISSUE illions of baht in aid and support are on NEWS: The first days after the their way to Phuket tsunami: special reports and Mand her neighbor- pictures. Pages 2 & 3 ing provinces as work starts to repair the havoc wreaked by last INSIDE STORY: Survivors’ sto- Sunday’s tsunami. ries. Pages 4 & 5 Within 48 hours of the di- SAVED: Safe in the arms AROUND THE ISLAND: If you saster – when the death toll stood of a nurse is 20-month-old knew sushi... Page 6 at around 1,000 and more than Hannes Bergstrom, from 7,500 people were recorded as Sweden. AROUND THE REGION: Italians restaurant takeover. Page 8 injured – companies across Thai- land were donating goods and Hannes was later reunited with his father and PEOPLE: From Hong Kong to services to the victims. grandparents, after Phuket for Leslie Bird. National carrier Thai Air- Pages 10 & 11 relatives in Finland saw his ways International (THAI) car- photograph on the Gazette LIFESTYLE: An odd couple of ried medical staff from Bangkok website and contacted his choices in Ear Candy; to Phuket, the injured and be- uncle, who lives in Magarita time. Page 12 & 13 reaved from Phuket to Bangkok, Pattaya. and transported the bodies of the STOOL PIGEON: The bird deceased for free. Four other His mother, Susanne, was feathers his nest. Page 17 Thai commercial airlines on still missing at the time of FIRST PERSON: Decentralize Tuesday also launched free going to press. to thrive. Page 19 flights for the afflicted. THAI sent staff from its BUSINESS & MONEY: Boat Family Assistance and Support brokers; Money Talks; On the Team – trained in counseling – Move. Page 21 to Phuket International Airport SPORT: Diving; Darts; Prime to assist and support traumatized Minister's Cup football; Un- passengers, while hundreds of der-13s footsall challenge. volunteers provided similar as- Pages 22 & 23 sistance at all the hospitals on the island. GOOD L IVING: A moving meal Donations of food, water, at Regatta. Page 24 clothes and survival kits were Vichit Na Ranong called on the said K. Vichit, a hotelier and In Patong, where busi- PROPERTY: The blossoming pledged, along with at least a government to expedite assis- former Phuket Senator. nesses and hotels along Tha- Orchid; Home of the Week: million baht in cash from vari- tance. The Association of Thai weewong Rd were demolished Kathu; Doven meets David, ous sources, while the CAT and “It’s too early to estimate Travel Agents estimated that the by the tidal wave, the municipal- Simister, that is. Advanced Info Service (AIS) the total cost of the damage, but tsunami will cost the provinces ity on Tuesday approved a 20- Pages 25, 26 & 27 offered free mobile phones and we must begin the clean-up as most affected – Phuket, Krabi, million-baht budget to begin GARDENING: Bloomin’ Bert phone calls, as well as free do- soon as possible,” he said on Phang Nga, Satun, Ranong, clean-up operations. pledges his allegiance. mestic and international calls. Tuesday. “We can’t afford to Songkhla and Surat Thani – at Mayor Pian Keesin backed Page 28 Most poignant of all was wait for three months. The gov- least 30 billion baht in loss of K. Vichit’s calls for more help Tuesday’s announcement from ernment must move faster – not tourism revenue alone – before from the central government, the Poh Teck Tung foundation just with financial assistance, the cost of cleaning up and re- saying, “I think the central gov- PLUS that it was donating 600 coffins but also in putting people and pairing the damage. ernment should provide us with to the effort. equipment to work removing Napasorn Kakai, Assistant special budgets to fix roads and AROUND THE NATION 7; HAP- The Finance Ministry an- debris and restoring the environ- Director of the Phuket office of damaged utilities, such as the nounced that charity contribu- ment. the Tourism Authority of Thai- power supply system.” PENINGS 9; THAILAND TRAVELER tions would qualify for full tax “I don’t think the general land (TAT), on Tuesday said that A United Nations-coordi- 14; KIDS 15; LAW, HOROSCOPES relief, while the government clean-up will take a long time, more than 200 beach hotels and nated international relief effort 16; TOON TOWN 17; EDITORIAL threatened to punish companies but to redevelop the resorts to resorts at the most popular was also announced on Tuesday, & LETTERS 18; ISSUES & AN- found to be hiking their prices their former beauty will take beaches, including Patong, Kata but at time of going to press it SWERS 19; BOOKS, COMPUTERS to profit from the misery. longer. We should strive to make and Karon, and with a total of was not clear how much money 20; WINE 24; CLASSIFIEDS 29- But in Phuket, Tourism the island even more attractive 3,000 rooms – are too damaged or aid would be directed to 35. Council of Thailand President than it was before the disaster,” to be open. Phuket. 2 PHUKET GAZETTE NEWS January 1 - 7, 2005 Island icon Rawut dies of heart attack Sor Wongnui, K. Rawut’s driver of 37 years, holds up two photos In Brief of the late MP. K. Sor kept the photos in his wallet at all times. KHAO LAK: A grandson BANGKOK: The Tourism fects of the tsunami were those Sangkhae Leelanapaporn He was later transferred to of His Majesty King Bhumibol Ministry supplied more than which rely on the sea for busi- Bangkok Phuket Hospital, where Adulyadej was among those 1,000 rooms in Bangkok to ac- ness: the Yacht Haven and Boat PHUKET: Former Phuket MP he was pronounced dead at about killed when tidal waves smashed commodate foreign tourists Lagoon marinas. Rawut Chindapol is dead of a 7 pm. into southern Thailand. whose hotels in Phuket, Phang Gus Overman, general heart attack at age 47. K. Sor, 55, told the Gazette The body of Bhumi Jensen, Nga and Krabi were destroyed. manager of Yacht Haven-based The Phuket native was fa- that K. Rawut had been fine in 21, was found at the resort of Domestic airlines arranged Tawan Cruises, said, “The water mous for leading the resistance the morning when they went Khao Lak, in Phang Nga prov- special flights to send foreign level went up, then the water to a tantalum factory on the is- shopping at Tesco-Lotus to- ince, about 100 meters away tourists from the three provinces went down very quickly; there land decades ago, leading a gether. from where he was last seen be- to Bangkok. All costs were to be were current streams and the crowd that burned the factory to “I had heard that he some- fore the waves hit. shouldered by the ministry. water moved around a lot, but the ground in 1985. times suffered chest pains and PHUKET: Wachira Phuket PHUKET CITY: Fisher- there wasn’t much damage at all. He was also the owner of had difficulty breathing, but he Hospital appealed for blood do- men who lost their boats – and I was told something similar hap- the Naithon Beach Resort and a didn’t see it as serious and never nors, especially those with rare livelihoods – are to receive a pened at Boat Lagoon.” Member of Parliament from 1986 went to see a doctor about it,” he blood types, such as rhesus nega- minimum of 12,000 baht each in A TSUNAMI – from the to 1991, first with the now-de- said, adding that K. Rawut had tive, or Rh-, types. aid from the government, Deputy Japanese tsu meaning harbor and funct Palang Mai Party and then given up both smoking and drink- The hospital, and others on Agriculture and Cooperatives nami meaning wave – is the re- with the Chart Thai Party. ing alcohol some 15 years ago. the island, collected donations of Minister Newin Chidchob said sult of a landslide, a (sub-marine) K. Rawut suffered a heart Many friends and well- food, clothes and toiletries for when he visited Phuket. volcanic eruption or an earth- attack at his hotel about 2 pm on wishers went to pay their last re- people – locals and tourists – who In addition, fishermen will quake. The latter, caused by a December 19, and was rushed by spects to K. Rawut at Bangkok lost their belongings, while vol- also be given a one-year morato- subduction of the Indian and Sor Wongnui, his driver of 37 Phuket Hospital, where his body unteers headed for the hospitals rium on repayments on subsis- Burma plates where they meet – years, to Thalang Hospital, los- will be kept until his cremation and other places where tsunami tence loans provided by the De- called the Andaman Thrust – re- ing consciousness on the way. ceremony early in the new year. victims had gathered – such as partment of Fisheries. sulted in the Magnitude 9 earth- Phuket Provincial Hall – to trans- If the compensation plan is quake on Sunday, December 26. late for bewildered visitors. approved by the government, the The effect of a tsunami will Muslim community leaders money should come through very be influenced by the relative tidal appealed for donations of white early in 2005. height of the sea at the coastal sheets for Muslim dead to be bur- PHUKET: Phuket busi- area where impact occurs. ied in. nesses that escaped the worst ef- One factor that affected the strength of the earthquake just off the northern coast of Sumatra was the depth at which it oc- curred, which was a “shallow” depth of just 10 kilometers be- low the seabed.